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Oxbridge

The basics

The oldest university in the English-speaking world began in Oxford more than 800 years ago. In 1209 scholars fleeing Oxford found themselves in Cambridge where they set up another university to rival the first. Though totally independent of each other, the two have come to be known familiarly by a single term: Oxbridge.

Oxbridge (silhouette white)
In the many centuries of their existence, the two old universities have grown, their collegiate structures have developed, and they have reflected changes in society (with the first female students arriving in the 20th century, for instance). But not everything has changed. Their prestige has been more or less undimmed, and so too has their rivalry, which remains as healthy as ever, with the two venerable institutions jostling for position at the top of the academic league tables and (far more importantly) in the annual University Boat Race.

Today the 70 colleges that make up Oxford and Cambridge house some 35,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the UK and all over the world, taking courses in disciplines old (classics) and new (business management), and striving to maintain the standards in which Oxbridge takes such pride.